The Buffalo Thunderbolt drive seems like the drive you may be after.
Its hit or miss with the RPM on those...I've gotten some that were 7200RPM and one or two that were 5400RPM.
So unfortunately no consistency there, but 7200RPM is 7200RPM 2.5" and 3.5"

If you want any form of cross-compatibility and future upgrades, look no further than Seagate's backup plus lines (formmerly go-flex).
These drive enclosures come with interchaneagle dock connectors. They come standard with USB 3.0 now. They have eSATA, Firewire, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt adapters. Since they are standard SATA connectors, these adapters will even work with other drives.

Future compatibility is a big deal.. I've been using these when they were USB 2.0. I upgraded to FW, then now to Thunderbolt. When they have Thunderbolt 2.0 with 20 Gbp/s, Seagate will probably make newer Tbolt version 2.0 adapters.

In either 2.5 portable or 3.5" desktop. You will need to buy an adapter but that is a one time purchase.
The backup plus comes right off the bat with USB 3.0. Decide if you want to go portable or desktop. The portable firewire adapter is $89.The desktop is $150. Once you buy the adapter, you can even plug in third party drives.

If you want any form of cross-compatibility and future upgrades, look no further than Seagate's backup plus lines (formmerly go-flex).
These drive enclosures come with interchaneagle dock connectors. They come standard with USB 3.0 now. They have eSATA, Firewire, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt adapters. Since they are standard SATA connectors, these adapters will even work with other drives.

Future compatibility is a big deal.. I've been using these when they were USB 2.0. I upgraded to FW, then now to Thunderbolt. When they have Thunderbolt 2.0 with 20 Gbp/s, Seagate will probably make newer Tbolt version 2.0 adapters.

In either 2.5 portable or 3.5" desktop. You will need to buy an adapter but that is a one time purchase.
The backup plus comes right off the bat with USB 3.0. Decide if you want to go portable or desktop. The portable firewire adapter is $89.The desktop is $150. Once you buy the adapter, you can even plug in third party drives.

The desktop one allows you to daisy chain which is cool.

I have this same setup. It is by far the fastest yet most versatile way to go.

Have you thought about the Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo? 5400rpm, yes, but it's TWO 5400rpm WD Green drives AND can be set as a striped RAID for better performance. I have the My Book Studio II (same thing, but Firewire 800) and it's plenty quick. Now I'm gonna have to benchmark it when I get home lol... (mine won't be as fast, though - mine's set as a mirrored RAID)

for you guys with the seagate thunderbolt adapters, any issues with connecting a monitor at the end of the chain? I am trying to put a DVI monitor with adapter at the end of the TBolt chain with no success. Just wondering what your luck was like.

for you guys with the seagate thunderbolt adapters, any issues with connecting a monitor at the end of the chain? I am trying to put a DVI monitor with adapter at the end of the TBolt chain with no success. Just wondering what your luck was like.

No problem on my end. I've connected:

1) Dell 24" via DVI. I used the Apple dp-dvi adapter.
2) Dell 24" via HDMI using some cheap amazon adapter.
3) Dell 24" via mini-displayport to hdmi to hdmi/dvi adapter connected to dvi on the monitor. Basically the monitor is really old and only has DVI. I put a DVI-to-HDMI dongle on the monitor itself. This way, I can easily plug and unplug different computers without unscrewing DVI. I connect to it by plugging in a HDMI cable. When connected to a mac, obviously, it is connected to anotehr adapter which is HDMI female to male mini displayport.

4) Dell 27" U2731HM via displayport cables.

I notice I did have problem using an expensive thunderbolt cable connected to a n adapter. Once I replaced the thunderbolt cable with a normal mini-dp cable, all worked.

__________________
A few Macbook Pros, iMacs, Minis, Xserves, iPads, iPhones and even PCs.

hmmm. Ill have to keep trying. Its a viewsonic connected via dvi with an apple adapter.

I was actually able to get it get a signal and the iMac to recognize that it was there. Just no image. But I plug it back in straight to the iMac and it works fine. Ill have to keep fiddling. thanks for the response.

for some reason this doesnt make sense, thunderbolt is 10Gbps each way? and a sata 6Gbps drive would work at maximum speed?

Just because the actual drive interface is 6Gbps, it doesn't necessarily follow that the drive can achieve anything like these higher speeds. The stated speed is only the theoretical transfer speed of the interconnect.

Just because the actual drive interface is 6Gbps, it doesn't necessarily follow that the drive can achieve anything like these higher speeds. The stated speed is only the theoretical transfer speed of the interconnect.

TB only matters for some SSDs, or for drives in striped RAID configurations; and SSDs are still cost prohibitive for most cases where you're trying to expand external storage - which is probably why single drive enclosures are hard to find.

__________________
What's the point of a sig showing the system I owned in 2006?

I'm limited to something portable unfortunately, i'll be carrying this thing around in my backpack with macbook, i do a lot of work on the road and rarely sat at a desk..

I managed to get my hands on a WD MyPassport 500GB USB3 so i could test Logic. I've loaded it with 15 channels of samples from the drive all playing together at a fast bpm and didn't notice any performance hit.

Even 2 x 7200 stripe will work well with USB 3, the only exception might be a couple of velociraptor drives striped as they could saturate the USB 3 line. One thing to be sure of is not all TB are created equal or the cables. Same can be said for USB 3.